(CFP Photo)
The Yangtze River Delta, comprising the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui and Shanghai municipality, made new strides in collaborative innovation in 2023, as revealed by a report released on January 31.
Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu, was ranked third among 41 cities within the region, trailing only behind Shanghai and Hangzhou. Suzhou in Jiangsu and Hefei in Anhui secured the fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Together the five cities formed pivotal centers for promoting innovation collaboratively.
The collaborative innovation index is grounded on five key indicators - resource sharing, innovation cooperation, achievement sharing, industrial alignment, and supportive environment. Using 2011 as the benchmark, the study measured and assessed the development of collaborative innovation in the region from 2011 to 2022.
Since 2018, the index has recorded an average annual growth of 11.17%. Notably, achievement sharing led in growth, followed by resources sharing and innovation cooperation.
The region has increasingly attracted pro-innovation resources. For example, the research and development (R&D) spending intensity reached 3.23%, nearly 0.7 percentage points higher than the national average. It boasted 76.2 R&D personnel per 10,000 people, double the national average. More than 40,000 sets of large instruments, valued at over 52.2 billion yuan, were available for shared use, facilitating open innovation cooperation.
In 2023, the delta saw 27,916 sci-tech papers featuring international collaboration, a 50% increase from 2018. All 41 cities actively involved in the regional scientific research cooperation network. Patent transfers and collaborative invention patents surged to 35,504 and 10,640, respectively, marking increases of 3.55 times and 1.77 times over 2018. Technology contracts volume reached 186.345 billion yuan, growing 4.19 times compared to 2018.
Industrial innovation in the region also saw significant growth. The profits of high-tech industries amounted to 466.1 billion yuan, an increase of 34.32% from 2018, accounting for 25% of the national total. The total industrial output value of enterprises in high-tech zones reached over 8.369 trillion yuan, up 62.63% from 2018, and nearly 30% of the national total.
